


Secret Santa

by shadeblue



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch, Christmas fic, Fluff, Gen, Jesse "Thirst" McCree, Jesse has all the crushes, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-09 23:40:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8918107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadeblue/pseuds/shadeblue
Summary: Jack teaches Jesse how to wrap a present.





	

            This was impossible. Hands down, hardest mission he’d ever had. He’d prepared, dammit. Done the research. Properly supplied. It shouldn’t be this tough.

            But Jesse could absolutely _not_ get this stupid hat properly wrapped.

            He’d tried just rolling it up and wrapping paper around it, but he couldn’t figure out how to close the ends without the inside of the wrapping paper showing. Then he’d tried to ball it up and wrap it like a candy, but he had the same problem. So then he’d tried to just fold the paper around it but he couldn’t get the ends to close completely. And that was completely discounting the fact that each and every effort looked like something he’d taken out of the trash.

            Jesse sighed heavily and grabbed the wrapping paper roll for a fourth time. It wasn’t like Gabe even _needed_ another hat. The man had, probably, a million of ‘em, and they all looked identical.

            But this was a _nice_ hat.

            Soft, made of heavy fabric in a deep green. Most of Gabe’s hats were black, or gray, but Jesse sort of thought green would be a nice color on him. Jesse had seen him wearing a sweater in a similar color at a party a few months ago, and it had looked good. Maybe it had just been a good sweater. Fitted, and soft. But Jesse didn’t have a lot of extra funds and a hat was something he knew Reyes would use. This one was a little warmer, a little nicer quality. It would look good on him. Like the sweater.  

Maybe. Who knew. He’d already bought the dang thing, so he may as well give it to Reyes. Jesse angrily crumpled a piece of gift wrap that wasn’t quite big enough. If he could get the stupid thing wrapped, that was.

            He’d just hand it to Gabe with a thanks and a nod, except apparently Christmas was sort of a thing around here. Last year had been his first Christmas with Blackwatch, and he’d been completely unprepared for the whole thing. Deadlock certainly didn’t do Christmas. Every year it was like, Merry Whatever, you’re not dead, keep it up. But Blackwatch. A group of dangerous, stone-cold tactical ops soldiers, going in on Secret Santa like it was a high-level op. Jesse had been prepared to work his ass off and prove himself, but he had not been prepared to buy a decent gift. Everyone had sort of given him a pass, being a newbie and all. This year he wanted to get on board.

            So of course he’d pulled Reyes for the Secret Santa.

            Why was the CO even in the list? Probably wasn’t. Probably they just did this to mess with the new guy. The team had stopped hazing Jesse after his third mission, when the Deadeye got them back home safe. But maybe they’d been waiting. For the ultimate haze. Getting Gabe a Christmas present. Trying to pick something out that said enough without saying too much, or maybe anything at all. It was just a _hat_. Gabe couldn’t possibly read anything into a hat.  The man wasn’t that smart. Right?

            Actually, Jesse thought, trying to untangle the ball that the tape had somehow become, finding him a gift had been pretty easy. This, though, was ridiculously hard. Maybe he could just put in in a sack or something…

            “You should try a box.”

             The chair screeched horribly as Jesse wrenched around. Crap, he shoulda done this in his room, or even later at night or—

            Jack Morrison.

            Strike Commander Jack Morrison of Overwatch crossed the room to the small gift wrap station they’d set up and dug through until he produced a small brown box. Then he sat down across the table from Jesse, opened the box, and started lining it with tissue paper.

            A few seconds too late, Jesse realized he probably should have saluted or something. He spent a minute trying to decide if he should do it now, but the moment seemed to have passed. Whatever. Morrison wasn’t his CO. Kind of. He hadn’t actually seen the guy this close up since his recruitment.

            He was handsome up close. But then, he was handsome on TV.

            Morrison reached out one hand. Jesse just looked at it. “Sir?”

            “Hat, McCree.”

            “Oh! Sure—” Jesse handed him the hat.

            Morrison laid the hat flat in the box and tucked the tissue paper around it. “I see the Secret Santa’s still going strong.”

            “Uh…yessir. I guess, sir.”

            He put the lid on the box. “You pulled Gabriel?”

            “Well… yes. Do you, uh, do—nevermind.” Jesse could feel his face heating up. This was stupid. It wasn’t like he had just gone out and purchased Gabe a gift for no reason. Morrison wouldn’t think anything of it.

And besides, Morrison wasn’t nearly as intimidating as Reyes. He was the friendly one, or whatever. When they gave speeches together, Morrison always did the ‘rah rah’ part while Reyes did the ‘don’t fuck it up’ part. Jesse wouldn’t have actually believed Morrison was a soldier if he hadn’t heard all the stories from the rest of the unit. He was too…clean. Shiny, almost.

            It didn’t wear off close up. The line of Morrison’s jaw was just as sharp and solid as it looked in the news feed. His eyes were maybe even bluer. His hair wasn’t perfect like every other time Jesse had seen him, it was softer, falling over his forehead. Morrison’s strong, capable hands cut a perfect piece of wrapping paper and flipped the box on its front.

            “With soft things, it’s easier to use a box. Then you’re not trying to wrap something that keeps changing shape.” Morrison folded the paper in half, deftly taking two pieces of tape—that _didn’t_ suddenly all stick together—and taping it down.  “Come over here.”

            Jesse stood up and walked around the table before his brain thought it through. Morrison had that thing Gabe had, that’s for sure. He could make any phrase sound like an order, and guys like Jesse would snap to.

            Morrison gestured for Jesse to lean down. “Fold the corners in like this, against the box. Use less paper so you don’t have an excess. Otherwise it’ll crinkle.”

            “Sure,” Jesse said. “I mean, yessir.”

            “Then fold this bit in half, then up. That way you don’t see the edges.” Morrison had that perfect instructor tone. Competent, informative, brisk. That was different from Reyes. Reyes didn’t explain patiently. He snapped, and you either got it, or you didn’t. But if you didn’t, he’d show you. Eventually. Jesse had made a point of spending some late nights in the training facility trying to figure stuff out so the next time they ran the drill or the op or whatever, Reyes would see him get it right. That way, it almost never came up.  Morrison was more the guy who did it over and over in the moment until you got it together.

            Jesse hadn’t known a lot of guys like Morrison. Or Reyes, for that matter.

            “So then, when you flip it over,” Morrison flipped the box over, “it’s just clean looking on the top.”

            In less than five minutes, Morrison had wrapped the small box perfectly. Seemed about right. No wonder this whole Overwatch thing had gotten so much traction. With these two in the lead…who could say no?

            “Got it, sir.” Jesse couldn’t make himself stop saying sir. He didn’t even say sir this much to Reyes.

            “There’s a bag of bows over there, if you want to grab one,” Morrison said.

            Jesse walked over to the gift wrap table and grabbed a silver bow and a gold bow. He offered both to Morrison. “Which?”

            “You pick, McCree.” Morrison smiled, no teeth, looking softer and more gentle than he did from a distance. “It’s your gift.”

            “Oh…yeah, okay. Uh…gold?” He didn’t want it to be a question, it just came out that way.

            “Gold it is.” Morrison took the bow and put it on the box. It went nicely with the deep red wrapping paper, printed with a lighter red tree pattern. “And there you go.”

            “Hey, it looks nice.” Jesse picked up the box.

            “No problem.”

            “Thank you…sir. For the help. It would have taken me all night at my rate.” Jesse laughed self-consciously.

            “Oh, you would have figured it out eventually. You’re a smart guy, McCree,” Morrison said, again with that soft smile.

            “Thank you, sir. Are you…do you guys do a Secret Santa?” Jesse wanted to step back, or maybe run out of the room, but it seemed like a bad call to be rude to the CO of Overwatch after the man had helped him wrap a present for no reason.

            Morrison laughed. The sound made Jesse smile in response. It had the same effect as Gabe’s half smiles. Some of his nerves rolled off his shoulders and he relaxed.

            “No, not really. Some of us old-timers exchange gifts but nothing as organized. I’m glad the tradition is still going strong with Blackwatch.”

            “Yeah.” Jesse shifted his weight. “It’s nice. Seems to bring everyone together.”

            “Good.”  Morrison stood up, suddenly taller and closer and a whole lot _bigger_ than he’d seemed, sitting at the table. “You have anything else you want to wrap?”

            Jesse finally took that step back. “No, sir. Thanks for your help.”

            “Anytime, McCree. Merry Christmas.”

            “Merry Christmas, Commander.”

            Jesse held the perfectly wrapped gift gingerly. He sat down at the table and snagged one of the nametags. Commander Reyes? Gabriel Reyes? Gabe, and see if that threw him off the gift-giver trail. Shoot.

            Finally, Jesse gave in and just wrote ‘Reyes.’ Half the unit called him that to his face anyway. He’d know who it was for, at the least.

            “McCree?”

            Jesse narrowly avoided drawing a hard black line across the name tag when he flinched. How did a man that big move so quietly? Was it something he and Reyes and learned at whatever seedy underground military compound they’d come from? Did it just happen when you reached a certain level in your military career?

            “Yes, sir?” Jesse managed.

            “That hat will be a good color on Gabriel. Well done.”

            With that, and one last parting smile, Jack Morrison taught Jesse McCree how to wrap a Christmas gift. Or something.

            Jesse didn’t see Morrison in real life again until about two weeks after the gift exchange. The guy was always on the news, but rarely around the compound. Jesse was headed out for a mandated run when he saw Morrison and Reyes walking toward the door of the compound.

            Morrison smiled when he saw Jesse coming. “McCree.”

            Jesse nodded. “Sirs.”

            “McCree,” Reyes nodded back. He was wearing the hat. It was a good color on him.

             Jesse tried not to grin as he felt the back of his neck heat up. He stepped aside to let them walk by, as was proper or whatever, so he was watching when Morrison turned back and grinned. He pointed to the hat, then gave Jesse a thumbs up.

            Reyes turned to look. He tilted his head slightly and smiled. Then the two men, shoulder to shoulder, vanished behind the sliding doors of the compound.

            Jesse stood for maybe thirty seconds, not thinking about that smile. Either of them.

            Merry Christmas indeed.


End file.
